I’ve spent the past week or so doing plein air watercolor painting every day. It requires huge patience and practice, and I’m a bit out of practice. All you wonderful artists out there who do this regularly, hats off to you all! I feel really humble. I am going to post some pics of what I’ve done, mostly for my own record in a separate post.

Sitting in this gorgeous early spring weather with no bugs is fabulous. Living in a place as gorgeous as Cape Breton means I can drive 5 or 10 minutes, or even take a walk, or just stay on my own property to find spectacular views.

Yesterday, I drove ten minutes and sat down year the Barrachois River to do a painting. While there, two beautiful ducks landed up the river not far from the bridge, and floated their way down to very near me where I caught these pictures. I’ve never seen ducks like this before. I’ll have to look them up. If anyone knows what they are, please let me know.

Ducks in the Barrachois River, keeping me company while I painted

This duck has the coolest hairdo ever! Anyone know what these ducks are?

Bridge over the Barrachois Bridge at Tarbotvale, Cape Breton. Plein air

Here is the picture I painted while sitting there. It doesn’t meet my mental standard, still, this is the way it turned out and I learn from everything I do.

Thanks for your comment! Yes, they appear to be Common Mergansers – the female has the brown head and the male is white and black, though it could be the other way around 🙂 Thanks for the tip. Not like any Mergansers I’ve seen before, but maybe I’ve just never seen them this close. They blend in really well with the blue and brown water of the river, and the rocks.